8) Do at least one thing that will publicize your product each day with Social Media to Drive Visitors Home

Other things to do on a regular basis:

1) Contact 5 people a day that could help you publicize your product

2) Give the social media network a hook to use to grab their audience (in the end you and your product do not matter to that media outlet, to the organization giving you the publicity, it’s how you can add interest to their show or blog, even their tweet stream, remember this!)

3) Research what various factions of the Social Media to Drive Visitors Home can put in their heading or intro;

“Coming up________” that will help their audience to stay tuned in or check back. What about you or your product would cause this reaction think of catchy phrases, make it easy to promote you or your product.

4) Again, you need to come up with hooks, what makes this Social Media to Drive Visitors Home or interviewer’s audience tune in to his or her show or blog. If it pushes you or your product at the same time, that makes it a win win, that is what we are looking for!

5 Ways to Create a Hook for the Social Media Network

3) Make a prediction; “Why the US will soon experience dramatic food shortages” –or—“Why food prices will continue to rise”

4) Ask a Question, “Can you give the media a question they can use?” or “What are cats thinking?”

5) Give them a timely hook, a reason they need to have information about your product now; Tax advice at tax time, new business start up advice in January, new kind of tomato plant in the spring

Create an effective publicity plan

1) Who is your core audience

2) What does that core audience read or watch

3) When will your topic be timely; time of year, anniversary, create a holiday around your product, look in the book Chase’s Calendar of Events for listing of 10,000 holidays

4) Is there a predictable news event that can be spun to your product and sent to theSocial Media to Drive Visitors Home, release of a movie, elections, release of monthly employment figures or farm reports

Avoid the “I’ll wait till it comes out to publicize the product” approach

1) When a new or updated product is released, the publicity must already be in place, The Social Media Network; Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn announcements kicking for weeks before the product hits the street.

2) Again do interviews blogs and email blasts, and consistent social media network exposure before the release date as well, to create anticipation of the new or improved product.

3) Listen to your core interest group, you may find improvements or hooks you never thought of before the product even comes out.

You want the influential bloggers

Get publicity and exposure on blogs that reach your core audience, not just your personal blog. The top 500 bloggers sites have over 100,000 visits per month, this is a resource you need to tap into!

Main ways to get valuable coverage on blogs:

1) Offer to write an article, this is called a “guest Post” free.

2) Offer the blogger the opportunity to interview you

3) Offer the blogger mention or a posting on your blog

4) Offer the blogger a free product so they can review it

5) Offer to run a free advice column in their blog Social Media to Drive Visitors Home

You must have a strategy, YouTube should part of any social media networking plan

1) What could your core audience be looking for?

2) How can you set up your video so your core audience can find you?

3) Video must be no longer than 2 min.

4) Better to have 40 videos, each 90 second tips than to have 6 videos, each 15 min speeches.

The YouTube videos should contain:

1) Hi I am _____________

2) I am important to you because _______________

3) Here is what we are doing for you

4) End with find me here and follow me on twitter

5) Ask for a response from them through your social media network

If this seems like too many questions for you to answer alone, we can help to use Social Media to Drive Visitors Home. Beyond our normal business serves. We can help set up your social media network and blog to work with your Website. We can even help with videos and building a digital image.

The fundamentals of social media engagement; common sense, not tips and tricks.

It’s very convenient for social media marketing firms to make the fundamentals of social media engagement out to be more difficult than they really are. The secret to success is basic, common sense, and the fundamentals of social media engagement follows the same rules that govern real life business networks and relationships.

I hope this is the simplest and clearest thing you’ve ever heard about the fundamentals of social media engagement for small business. Here it goes:

In order to successfully market your small business through social media you need to do two things:

(1) Grow and nurture your online networks

(2) Create and share great content

Let me say that again.

In order to successfully market your small business through the fundamentals of social media engagement, you need to do two things:

(1) Grow and nurture your online networks

(2) Create and share great content

No secrets. No tips. No tricks. Just common sense.

Your small business social media marketing efforts start with you – the business owner and executives.

If you haven’t put the time into the fundamentals of social media engagement, effectively building and nurturing your own, personal, online networks (your human marketing platform), then your social media efforts will likely be an uphill battle. There aren’t any tips or tricks to shortcut the fundamentals of social media engagement and the process it takes to get there. It’s a commitment very much like going to networking events, trade shows and business expos with all of the necessary follow up.

Your social media success will be determined by your capacity to grow your online networks and strengthening those relationships through the fundamentals of social media engagement. That means commenting, posting, tweeting, sharing, retweeting, liking, plussing, friending, following, connecting…well you get the point. It’s a daily commitment and there is no way around it.

You need to give your online networks reasons to tell their networks about you and your business.

Having big networks and great relationships will only take you so far. If you want to get people talking about you online and telling their friends about your business, you must create and share great content. This is the major part of the fundamentals of social media engagement.

Whether you are sharing great industry related articles, writing killer blog posts, designing stunning infographics, or filming compelling interviews, you need to be creating and sharing something that your online networks will find valuable enough to share with their networks.

This is what makes social media work. It’s the truth about what it takes to be successful marketing your small business through the fundamentals of social media engagement. And again, there aren’t any tips, tricks or secrets to give you a shortcut.

If you want to market your small business successfully through social media, you need to keep your ground game strong. Keep building new relationships, making more contacts and satisfying customers. Use these relationships as the foundation to grow and nurture your online networks. In order to get these folks talking about your business you need to create and share great content that they will want to share with their friends and networks.

If you are doing this, and following the fundamentals of social media engagement, then maybe you are ready for some social media tips and tricks. Not a moment sooner…

45 Secrets of Driving Donations through Social Media

by Thomas R. Reich

You have wondered what social media can do for your nonprofit, but more important, how can you get more donations through social media? I speak far and wide on the benefit to small business of social media, and having a proper social media network attached like a funnel to your website and blog. But what if this same type of network is used in a nonprofit organization, can you get more donations through social media networking? Read on and be surprised!

Used together in a network, more donations through social media can be achieved, especially when connected to an effective blog and website pages that act as landing pages which are donor friendly, in other words, a page on your website that clearly states your cause, how the visitor can help, and a click here to donate button.

Let’s have some fun looking at each facet of social media, your website, and blog, and together discover many ways to get more donations through social media!

YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Blogs and your website all have their place but when tied together they become a powerful tool to get potential donors to your website and help create more donations through social media.

First let’s look at Twitter:

1) It is important to have as many targeted followers as possible for Twitter to be effective. Take a look at:

3) Add @ symbol to share content of a respected site in your field and give your tweet more credibility, example: @charitynetusa

4) Automate the tweeting of other sites that you respect to bring more content to your Twitter site.

5) Automate your Tweeting so it is consistent at a certain time, using SocialOomph, Rooster, HootSuite or other services. This will help bring more donations through social media. Read more:

6) Use the # symbol to attract the attention of those searching for the keyword of your mission. An example would be, for this article I would include #social media or #more donations.

7) Be consistent in your content, always stay on the topic of your mission in all you do if you want your network to become a funnel for more donations through social media!

FaceBook:

1) Always update your Facebook page with your latest blog as soon as it is published to help the funnel effect and create the opportunity for more donations through social media!

2) Provide content links on your Facebook page to send them to your blog, your website landing page or to join you on your Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn or Pinterest accounts with one click!

3) Run polls using the standard Facebook ‘Question’ feature (above the ‘Write something’ box) to engage your audience and involve them, possibly encouraging more donations through social media yet again, beginning to get the picture!

4) Link your Facebook to your email newsletter.

5) Have a great “Mission Page” with a call to action on your Facebook encouraging more donations through social media.

6) Write a headline that is ‘keyword’ rich for your industry and niche.

7) Your title should make the potential viewer want to hit the play button, and encourage more donations through social media!

8) Respond to all comments whether good, bad or indifferent in a timely manner. It is important to engage your followers quickly and often to encourage more donations through social media; this is true for any facet of your social media network!

ARCHIVES

CATEGORIES

1) Interview people involved in your mission, edit to no longer than 2 or 3 min and post on your YouTube channel.

2) Edit short snippets showing the plight of those you are trying to help, make small snippets 30 sec – 90 sec, and post many of them.

3) Edit and post short videos of participants in your latest event, as many different people as possible in 30-90 second snippets, post many snippets individually but never longer than 90 seconds, and make sure to tag with the names of the people in each snippet.

4) Make sure to include your website and your blog link in your YouTube profile!

5) Automate sharing after posting (available under ‘Account settings” then ‘Activity Sharing’, then choose the social accounts and as a minimum select Facebook and Twitter.

7) Always announce a new YouTube video posting through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and in your website and newest blog. This is why you have a social media network, to encourage even more donations through social media!

LinkedIn:

1) Choose to make your profile public when making your profile settings.

2) Use all three link options; website, blog and social media links that LinkedIn allows in your profile, in order to maximize more donors through social media.

3) Ask questions in the Q&A section of LinkedIn with possible answer as links to your blog posts that explain whatever the question was about.

4) Set up a special LinkedIn for you blog, all linked to you blog and website, this will help you get more donations through social media.

5) Integrate your Blog post feed into your LinkedIn account using the ‘Add an Application’ button at the bottom right of your home page.

1) Linking your Facebook and Twitter accounts with your Free Pinterest account enables you to sync all networks and maximize your chances to get more donations through social media!

2) In order to place another user’s pin on one of your boards, you must ‘repin’ it! In doing so, you give the credit to who it came from which helps build relationships with other Free Pinterest account users.

3) Upload relevant, useful media from your website or find pictures that represent or pertain to your brand once or more a day.

4) BE AUDIENCE APPROPRIATE: According to MGD Advertising, as of April this year, 87% of Free Pinterest account users are women with the majority of ages between 25 & 54. Therefore, target your posts to maximize interest from that target group to get more donors from social media with Pinterest.

1) Produce inspiring, educational and awesome content that is so compelling that people want to share it, this is the foundation of your capacity building. All media is about good content and social media is no different, good content = more donors through social media.

2) Write regularly and consistently, at least once a week and and link all your new posts to all your social media. Potential donors will then come and visit regularly and keep coming back because they know it will be new and topical, and on an issue they want to learn more about. These repeat visitors are your target; they will be the ones to get you more donors through social media!

3) The blog headline is important for several reasons; first they need to attract attention, second they need to contain the keyword or keywords you are using to attract donors.